Julie Angerhofer, PhD, MPH

Associate Investigator

Julie Angerhofer, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Investigator at the Institute for Health Research. Dr. Angerhofer is passionate about improving health care delivery in partnership with people who provide and receive health care. She applies qualitative methods to inform what research questions we should be asking and how we should consider answering them. She employs statistical methods to inform implementation evaluations with a goal of optimizing care delivery and improving clinical practice effectiveness and patient outcomes. 

Dr. Angerhofer has received grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to support implementation and evaluation of suicide prevention practices in health care. She routinely collaborates with multidisciplinary teams to co-design intervention implementation strategies via user-centered design and community-based participatory research approaches.

Selected Research:

  • Understanding unexpected suicide attempts among children & teens: A mixed-method study

    • Dr. Angerhofer is leading a multi-site study to learn how to improve the way we screen children and teens for suicide risk in healthcare. The team will interview children and teens ages 10-17 (and their parents and guardians) who attempted suicide after a healthcare encounter during which they reported having no suicidal thoughts on one of two widely used suicide risk screening tools.

    • Funder: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Kaiser Permanente, and Johns Hopkins
    • Study End Date: 10/31/2028

  • Suicide Care Research Center

    • Dr. Angerhofer is collaborating with a large multi-disciplinary team to support a practice-based suicide prevention research center based at the University of Washington. The center is focused on improving suicide care for adolescents and young adults in outpatient medical settings by enhancing the therapeutic alliance and increasing the self-efficacy of all involved parties (e.g., providers, patients, family members).

    • Funder: National Institute for Mental Health
    • Study End Date: 01/31/2028

  • Pilot Testing Implementation of Suicide Risk Prediction Algorithms to Support Suicide Prevention in Primary Care

    • Dr. Angerhofer is leading a study to pilot use of suicide risk prediction algorithms in primary care using a human-centered design approach. The study team is using the Discover, Design and Build, and Test framework to support implementation of clinical decision support tools to help primary care clinicians screen, assess and engage at-risk patients in risk mitigation during primary care encounters to reduce suicidal behavior and attempts.

    • Funder: National Institute for Mental Health
    • Study End Date: 04/30/2027